THE STUDY OF THE AFFECTS OF BACKGROUND MUSIC OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY

Transcription

1 THE STUDY OF THE AFFECTS OF BACKGROUND MUSIC OF SHORT-TERM MEMORY Liz Jones Cary Academy ABSTRACT The purpose of these experiments was to determine if background music affects shortterm memory. Short-term memory processes information by repeating, grouping and summarizing it to aid its storage in long-term memory and sound is when vibrations of air molecules move through the air, get received, and then translate them into messages that the brain recognizes as sound by the ear. In the method, the test suspects listened to background music while hearing a recording twice, the test suspects then repeated it back after 30 secs. It was found that the test suspects did better while listening to music rather than not listening to music. This is because information in short-term memory is stronger when constantly thought about, when the test suspects are listening to the background music the test suspects are trying hard to remember the recording of information. INTRODUCTION Short-term memory processes information by repeating, grouping and summarizing it to aid its storage in long-term memory. Information only stays in short-term memory for a short amount of time before it is moved to long-term memory or is discarded. The only way for information to be moved to long-term memory is to be repeated multiple times when it is in short-term memory. Short-term memory can only hold 5-7 units of information every secs. Short-term memory only holds information if it is actively thought about. New information can force information out of short-term memory too. If information is not repeated or practiced often, it will be lost from the memory. Units of information are single pieces and information like a person s name. There are many factors of how information gets into long-term memory. One strong factor is repetition

2 and repeating information. If things are repeated often then they will move into longterm memory. Another strong factor is emotion. Like getting in an accident or falling in love. Those kinds of things are hard to forget. The whole world is filled with sound. It allows communication through speak. When strings on a guitar vibrate, it presses on molecules in the surrounding air. Normally the molecules are spread out but the vibration compresses them or pushes them close together. The molecules bump into other ones around it, which is the vibration. Then the vibration is transmitted outward from the guitar strings. That creates waves in the air molecules. Once all that vibrating air hits an eardrum, sound is heard. The only way to hear sound is through vibration. Without it, nothing would be heard. To test this, feel a throat while talking. The vocal cords are making vibration. Sound travels in sound waves. They can be called compression waves also because the air molecules are compressed when they vibrate. Vibration objects send out sound waves in every direction. When sound travel s it has to travel through a medium. That means it has to travel through a gas, liquid, or solid. If sound travels through a liquid or a solid, it travels a lot faster than going through a gas. Molecules cannot vibrate through a gas as fast as they could through a liquid or solid. The speed of sound is four times faster in water than in air and fifteen times faster through steel. The brain is an amazing thing. It is an organ in the body. It controls thought, judgment, personal identity, memory, and other aspects called mind. The brain also controls the body, like body temperature, blood pressure, and the activity of internal Figure 1 - this diagram shows the six main parts of the brain.

3 organs. This helps the body respond to its environment and maintain its health. There are 6 main parts to the brain, the parietal lobe, frontal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe, cerebellum, and the spinal cord. The frontal lobe is located at the top of the brain and controls: Problem solving Attention Creative thought Some emotion Intellect Reflection Judgment Initiative Inhibition Coordination of movements Generalized and mass movements Some eye movements Sense of smell Muscle movements Skilled movements Some motor skills Physical reaction Libido (sexual urges) Abstract thought processes Behavior The parietal lobe controls: Appreciation of form through touch (stereognosis) Response to internal stimuli (proprioception) Sensory combination and comprehension Some language and reading functions

4 Some visual functions Sense of touch (tactile sensation) The temporal lobe controls: Some hearing Visual memories Some vision pathways Other memory Music Fear Some language Some speech Some behavior and emotions Sense of identity Auditory memories The occipital lobe controls: Vision Reading The cerebellum controls: Balance Posture Cardiac, respiratory, and vasomotor centers The spinal cord controls: Conduit and source of sensation and movement When vibrations of air molecules move through the air, get received, and then translate them into messages that the brain recognizes as sound by the ear. The ear has 2 different functions. Both are important and different. There is hearing and sensing the

5 body s equilibrium, or balance. The mechanisms for these processes are in the skull's temporal bone located in a hollow space. Memory is all about remembering and forgetting. Information is stored in memory and it can be tapped a bunch of different ways. The ability to retrieve learned material is called memory recall or retrieval. The brain does something called recognition. That is the ability to identify material that has been encountered before. The recognition of a person s face is a good example of good recognition. Being able to not recall the person s name is a good example of faulty recall. When something is learned and then forgotten, it can be relearned a lot quicker than before. Katie Shy tested to see if the age of people affect their memory. She tested this by showing different ages of people 40 pictures for 1 min and then let them sit there for 30 secs. After doing her experiment, she found out that people in their 20s have the best memories. She also learned that male and females both averaged 12 pictures in her experiment. Another thing she found was that shoe size and years of education do not have an exact pattern. The height of the person did matter though. It was learned that the taller the person the better memory they had. MATERIALS AND METHOD A phone, computer, timer, test suspects, music, and seven recordings were used in this experiment. Test suspects were placed in front of a computer. The test suspects listened to background music while hearing a recording twice of 8 words. Once the recording was finished a timer was set for thirty secs and the test suspects waited there quietly. Once the timer was done, the test suspects repeated what was heard in the recording. The same thing happened to the same test suspect but without listening to background music. With no music a different recording was used. The scores were calculated and recorded.

6 In the follow up experiment the same thing was tested, how many words each suspect could remember after listening to background music. In this experiment, different types of music were used. The test suspect listened to three different types of music, pop, country, classical, and no music also. Each type of music had a different recording to go with it. The test suspect listened and waited like said before in the first experiment. The scores were calculated and recorded. In the next follow up experiment the same thing was tested, how many words each suspect could remember after listening to background music. This time the amount of letters in the 8 words were being determined. A set of 4 different recordings had different amount of letters in them, 3-4, 5-6,7, 9-10, and random letters with no music. A different recording was used for each experiment or set of numbers. The test suspects listened and waited like the first experiment. The scores were calculated and recorded. The next follow up experiment was just like the first one. The same test suspects were used for the first experiment. This experiment was testing the amount of times the test suspects heard the recording set (which was twice). The same test suspects heard it 3 more times using the same method as the first. The results were calculated and recorded. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In this experiment the results were surprising (see figure 1). Test suspects remembered more with background music (5) that without background music (3). This is because information in short-term memory is stronger when constantly thought about. When the test suspects are listening to the background music the test suspects are trying really hard to remember the recording of information. Therefor the information is thought about more and the memory of it is stronger. The high of this data was music and the low was no music.

7 # Correct music Background Sound no music Figure 2 - this graph shows the average number of word memorized by the test suspects with and without music. In this experiment different types of music were tested to see if it would change the data at all from no music (see figure 2). Rock (3) and country (3) made it easier for the test suspect to remember the recording. However the classical (2) made the test suspect worse at remembering the recoding. This happened because the classical music through the test suspects off. The test suspects were used to listening to upbeat music like rock and country. That is why the classical music made the scores wrong. The high of this data was fast music and the low was slow music.

8 Average Change of Words Remembered rock classical country no music Type of Music Figure 3 - this graph shows how many words each test suspects could remember with different types of background music and no music. In this experiment the results were very surprising (see figure 3). The length of words were tested and the lower number of letters were harder to remember like 3-4 letters (3). 5-6 and 7 letters both remembered the same amount of letters (4) letters was the easiest set of words to remember. This is because the smaller letters are harder to remember in short-term memory. Since they are so small, they are easily forgotten. That is why the longer words were easier to remember. The high of this experiment was long letters and the low was short letters.

9 # Correct Length of Words (# of letters) Figure 4 - this graph shows how many words each test suspects could remember. Each recording had a different length for the words. This experiment tested the affects how many times the test suspects heard the same recording (see figure 4). The 1 st and 2 nd time it was heard the same amount was remembered and the test suspects were still getting the recoding into their head (5). The 3 rd time the test suspects heard it, it was almost completely memorized (7). The 4 th time it was heard it stuck in the test suspects head (8). This is because things in shortterm memory get stronger or move to long-term memory when they are actively thought about. The test suspects heard the recording multiply times so the information got stronger. The more times the test suspects heard it, the better it was remembered.

10 # Correct Times It Was Heard Figure 5 - this graph shows how well the test suspects remembered the recording after hearing it multiply times. CONCLUSION In the results, the test suspects did better memorizing the recording with music rather without music. This data it important to the world because it is good to know what affects and doesn t affect the brain and mind. The hypothesis was incorrect because the test suspects did better listening to music. In the future, some follow up experiments would be, do distractions affect how well the test suspects do, and do eating and drinking while listening to the recording affect? Citations "brain and spinal cord." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Web. 13 Jan "ear." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Web. 13 Jan

11 McGrath, Kimberley A. ed. "Memory." The Gale Encyclopedia of Science. Volume 4. Detroit: Gale Group, Print. "memory." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Web. 13 Jan Shy, Katie. A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF AGE ON PEOPLE S MEMORIES. Cary Academy. February 15, Silverstein, Alvin and Virginia Silberstein and Laura Silverstein. Energy. Brookfield: Twenty-First Century Books Print. "The Brain." Enchanted Learning. Enchanted Learning, Web. 22 Feb < >. "Your Brain and Nervous System." Kids Health. Nemours, Web. 22 Feb <